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We'll drink to that! Pub and bar stories from across Derbyshire

He said: “I’ve put everything into the Bubble Inn and now it’s the most amazing place. Our menu is fantastic and you’ve got to book if you want to come for the Sunday carvery.

“It’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a pub and I’ll never sell it.

“I’m going to do the same thing at the Royal Oak. I want to replicate what I’ve done at the Bubble Inn and make this new place every bit as popular.”

Connie Eleftheriou, waved his magic at the Bubble Inn - now he opens the Royal Oak near Ashbourne on Friday

Connie isn’t proud about parts of his past but says he has certainly learned from his mistakes.

Being locked up for 23 hours a day in Nottingham Prison, for “being a bad lad”, has helped him to get back on track. He spent three months in prison and says what broke his heart the most was seeing his mum burst into tears when she came to visit.

He said: “I was there for three months and it was the hardest, most awful place. I vowed to turn my life round after that, and enrolled on a business course while I served my time.

“When I came out, I managed to scrape together £1,000 and threw it into a café in Ashbourne. I worked my socks off and six months later, I sold it for £60,000.”

Connie Eleftheriou, who turned the Bubble Inn in Stenson into an award-winning success story, moves back to home-town of Ashbourne to take on the Royal Oak on Friday

It was this lucky break which enabled Connie to snap up the Bubble Inn – despite admitting he was buying just one barrel of beer at a time because he was so broke.

“Times were hard in the early days at the Bubble,” he laughed. “I was cooking in the kitchen for years because I was so determined to make this place work.

“I had to give it everything and that’s because I had ambition and drive. I wanted a career. I wanted a business and I wanted to achieve something.”